Courts Rules CIGNA Is Biased

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

A Minnesota judge just ruled that CIGNA’s evaluation of a long term disability (“LTD”) claim was “biased.” In McNally v. CIGNA, 2009 WL 1458275 (D. Minn. May 26, 2009), CIGNA terminated the LTD benefits of a claimant with Multiple Sclerosis (“MS”), a progressive neurological disorder. The court found that CIGNA’s handling of the claim was so defective that it could only have resulted from “either bias or incompetence,” and concluded the former was the reason.

The court highlighted that CIGNA improperly relied on the opinion of Dr. John Mendez, its in-house internal/occupational medicine physician, because he “obviously lacks the necessary familiarity or training with the nature of fatigue and multiple sclerosis”. The court ruled that CIGNA “had little reason to disregard the opinions of McNally’s treating neurologist in favor of Mendez’ opinion.”

Besides reliance on the Mendez opinion, the court held that CIGNA’s “bias is apparent from other evidence as well.” However, I want to point out that CIGNA knew its reliance on Mendez was improper because it was chastised for doing the same in Alfano v. CIGNA, 2009 WL 222351 (S.D.N.Y. Jan 30, 2009).

In Alfano, I represented the claimant, who primarily suffered from a back problem. For more information about Alfano see my prior blogs or the decision which is available on my web site. In Alfano, CIGNA also rejected the opinions of the treating specialists in favor of Mendez. Mendez’ entire analysis of Mr. Alfano’s claim, which consisted of hundreds of pages of medical records, was only two sentences.

If your LTD claim has been denied by CIGNA, make sure that you consult with an attorney as soon as possible. Once you have exhausted your appeals with CIGNA it may be too late to allow a court to review additional evidence that reveals CIGNA’s bias.

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